I started off in my bed, at home. 10:30 a.m. my brother comes into my room to wake me up for my first day of my whole new adventure. Of course, I am clinging to my wonderful sheets, trying my absolute best to soak in my last official sleep in my own bed. Let’s just say we didn’t actually get on the road until 12.
So, by 12:05, my brother, Julio (my should-really-have-been-my-brother-because-he-lives-at-my-house), Meagan (my friend), and I, are all rocking out in the car on our way to Berkeley’s finest: Zachary’s Pizza. The Best Pizza Evar!! It was delicious. I am extremely thankful that we chose to go there for my last official food in the United States.
When we got out of there we made our way to UC Berkeley’s campus. Where we continued to get lost! Luckily with Julio’s amazing spidey sense of direction we finally made it to where I was supposed to go. (I have to admit, I got a little teary eyed with the goodbye. Don’t tell!)
I was in my little dorm room, settled at 3:30. Dinner didn’t start until 6. Twiddling my thumbs is fun and all, but around 4 I just gave in and started exploring. (I was shamelessly, listening at doors to see if anyone else was home. You would too.) I found Lulu first. She was doing the same exact thing that I was. Hehe. So, we made our way back to my room, where we found Jordan across the hall from me. We all hung out until dinner. Unfortunately, we all got separated into a different Kumi (which is Japanese for group).
I was now in the Purple Kumi, or as my instructors, Andy Sensai and Paige, like to call it, Purple Thunder!
Hers they are :)
There are quite a few people that I met from my Regional PDO that are here (Jared,Elli,Justine, Jordan). I’m actually rooming with one of them, Elli. :) Some of them are in my Kumi too.
We all went to dinner. UC Berkeley has a ginormous cafeteria. You get a Meal Card (that you don’t lose otherwise there is a $50 fee) and you just get to eat whatever you want. It was cool. I trekked across the expanse of counters with Jared. Sadly, he’s not in my Kumi. I did get hit on by a tall UCB guy. Not going to lie, he was pretty cute. Haha.
After dinner, we participated in “Getting to Know Each Other” with our Kumi. We played the Fruit Basket Game? I don’t know if you guys have heard of it, but I definitely didn’t. Everyone sits around in this big circle and there is one person in the middle that says, “I share common ground with someone who does –insert activity-“, than all the people who have done that “activity” has to stand up and then run to someone else’s chair who was standing up and sit in there chair. The person that is standing has to do the next, “I have in common with…” thing. I wasn’t too good at it. I ended up in the middle several times.
After that, all of the Kumi’s gathered and we all got to listen to the different YFU staff members talk about how this whole orientation was going to go down. The YFU president was even present. He lived in Japan for two years when he was little and has worked in Japan off and on since. We also watched this slideshow about Japan.
We got free time. I took the time to take a shower. I dashed there. Lol. I was the first one! Mom, you would have been proud, I only took like 5 minutes. :)
Lights are out at 10:30.
Tomorrow I’m supposed to learn how to cook Octopus I think. We’ll see how that goes…
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